Tag Archive for: fantasy

Writer Prompts: The Devil’s in the Details

Welcome writers, readers, and inspiration chasers! Join me as I dip into my prompt resources and select something to explore and share. These prompts are all about inspiration—what they inspire for me and what they inspire for you.

If you’re inspired by the prompt, whether that’s by creating something epic or just warming up for your creative day, I hope you’ll share your creation.

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This prompt comes from the book An Apple a Day by Caroline Taggart (published by Reader’s Digest, 2011). This is a collection of idioms and expressions that explores what the phrases mean and some of the history behind them.

Feel free to go wherever the prompt takes you!

Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t. (page 26)

A cowardly one, I’ve always thought, and Richard Taverner’s 1539 translation of Erasmus’s Latin phrase is sexist, too: “An evil thing known is best. It is good keeping of a shrew that a man knoweth.” It’s often the excuse people give for staying in an unsatisfactory job or a relationship because they are frightened of the unknown alternative. Kylie Minogue reiterated this message in her song “Better the Devil You Know.” In it she describes a woman promising to wait for some dreadful man, ready to forgive and forget if he will only stop leaving her. Honestly, Kylie, whatever happened to Girl Power? I suggest you change your locks and move on.

But one man’s cowardice is another man’s prudence, I guess, so although I am advocating “Fortune favors the brave,” you could equally argue for “Look before you leap.” As I said in my Introduction, you can’t rely on proverbs to make all the decisions for you.

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Where I started:

Obviously, when I read this prompt, I was immediately inspired to write about literal devils, because why wouldn’t I be?

Working from the direct phrase, I had to consider how a pesky little human might encounter two devils, one she knows and one she doesn’t. The obvious solution (because I watched way too much Buffy the Vampire Slayer at an impressionable age) is a bar or some kind of night club in which humans and demons intermingle (knowingly or unknowingly). I liked the idea of a human who keeps visiting a bar with her demon guide, looking to meet a specific kind of devil. (Maybe a devil who will make a deal with her?)

Being a vampire girl at heart (see re: Buffy), it made sense that Avis’s demonic companion be someone equally as tortured, so I selected a vampire for her guide. I liked adding a twist that their relationship is ultimately fraught no matter what happens to Avis because despite being friends, one of them is a hunter and the other is food.

Originally posted for the Story Kernels Patreon December 15, 2022.

What I wrote: 

Avis leaned on elbows over the table, squinting in the low light of the club. The flickering candle illuminated her neck, turning it nearly translucent and making her veins stand out even more. “Who’s that?”

Nab flicked his eyes away from her throat. “Which one?”

“By the door.” Avis’s tone sounded annoyed by his inattention, but she’d never appreciated what it was like spending time with someone so full of blood. “The one in the red leather jacket with the fringe. Gold hoop earrings. Blond hair.”

“Oh.” The specifics were needed as there were several people by the door in red leather. Not that surprising at the Devil’s Club. “Summer, I think. Sumner? Something like that.”

“Introduce me?” Those two words were one day going to get Avis killed, but Nab never had any inclination to deny them. Afterall, if he ever delivered Avis to someone who wanted her, he’d get some kind of favor in return. (And he wouldn’t have the displeasure of losing his control and being the one to do her in.)

“Another devil to add to your list?” Nab asked in weak protest. He was already on his feet, hand extended to help her up.

She didn’t take Nab’s hand, keeping her eyes on the door and her quarry. “Bring him here?”

It wasn’t a good idea—it was never a good idea—but humans often only acted on the worst ideas.

He shrugged, said, “Your funeral,” and hoped he was once again proven wrong.

Now it’s your turn:

What’s the devil your character knows and the one they don’t? How do they navigate between those devils? Is there another portion of this prompt that speaks to you in a different way?

 

If you enjoyed this prompt and would like another, the October prompt on Patreon inspired a story about a woman dealing with a dithering memory.

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Writer Prompts: The Creature from the Black Lagoon

Welcome writers, readers, and inspiration chasers! Join me as I dip into my prompt resources and select something to explore and share. These prompts are all about inspiration—what they inspire for me and what they inspire for you.

If you’re inspired by the prompt, whether that’s by creating something epic or just warming up for your creative day, I hope you’ll share your creation.

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This prompt comes to you via the book Complete the Story released by Piccadilly USA Inc. The prompts in this book give you the first few lines of a story and lined paper for you to continue writing.

Feel free to go wherever the prompt takes you!

Ever since the creature crawled out of the lake, the whole town had begun to show their true colors. The uncertainty, the fear, and the fascination combined into a potent cocktail that brought out the best in some, the worst in others. The creature was…
– page 39

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Where I started:

I really liked the first sentence of the prompt—especially if I turned the metaphoric idiom about “true colors” into something literal. After discarding what wasn’t as inspiring, I had to decide what creature crawled out of the lake, who found the creature, and what colors it could make people turn. (And why—what do those colors mean?)

I quickly decided the colors must mean something about the person. Maybe what drives them, or what kind of person they are. I also liked the idea that a person’s color could change through their actions—so that exists in my mind, even if it isn’t on the page in this snippet.

I wanted my creature to be small, and for some reason lake + creature immediately made me think of a reptile. Adding the color-changing features, it wasn’t difficult for me to decide my creature was a chameleon. (Which also meant it was scoopable, another quality I liked for this little visitor.)

I usually spend a lot of time writing about adults and decided to do something different. Since E.T. is imprinted on my soul, I decided a child protagonist who finds an extraordinary creature and hides it from the adults might be fun to explore.

With all that decided, I knew where I wanted to start.

Originally posted for the Story Kernels Patreon January 12, 2023.

What I wrote:

The little chameleon curled in the warmth of Charlene’s aquamarine-stained palms. Cupped in a cocoon that blocked the chill blowing off the lake, his tail flicked over her skin like a happy tickle. He should not have been outside at this time of year! Chameleons are cold blooded, and this little guy was lucky a wandering ten-year-old well-educated in reptiles spotted the glimmering red body at the shoreline. Or else he would have frozen in a matter of minutes!

Charlene tucked chapping hands to her chest, wrapping them beneath the rainbow scarf she had knitted all on her own. Sticks and rocks crunched beneath her boots as she trekked the hill back to the house her dads had rented for fall break.

She might have to take a serious scrub to her hands, since whatever was on the chameleon’s belly wouldn’t rub off, but she’d worry about that after she found a jar and a warm place to keep her new friend. The desk lamp in her room should work for heat. She could come out and grab some sticks and swipe a few leaves of lettuce from her salad at dinner. Bugs might be harder to find, but that spider in the bathroom was surviving on something.

On the porch, Charlene peered into the hole of her cupped hands, the crimson glistening even in the diluted light.

“Ruby,” she decided in an instant. “We just need to make sure Daddy doesn’t find you.” Daddy, unfortunately, didn’t understand a thing about lizards.

Now it’s your turn:

What creature crawls out of a lake? What does the creature bring out in those closest to it? What about those who know little about it? Are the colors the townspeople experience literal or metaphoric?

 

If you enjoyed this prompt and would like another, the August prompt on Patreon inspired a story about another unusual creature, this one a celestial feline who seems literally impossible.

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Writer Prompts: Never Go in Against a Sicilian

Welcome writers, readers, and inspiration chasers! Join me as I dip into my prompt resources and select something to explore and share. These prompts are all about inspiration—what they inspire for me and what they inspire for you.

If you’re inspired by the prompt, whether that’s by creating something epic or just warming up for your creative day, I hope you’ll share your creation.

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This prompt comes to you from the Writing Prompts Tumblr. This Tumblr is a fantastic resource for prompts of all kinds. Most offer a short paragraph of a situation to grab your imagination, and then it’s up to you to develop a story.

Feel free to go wherever the prompt takes you!

You can see everyone’s Deaths following them, arriving to offer their hands right as they die. Today, you saw something new; someone chasing after their Death, who is fleeing at a dead sprint.

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Where I started:

Honestly where I started was the Deadpool and Death Annual from 1998 in which Deadpool keeps trying to die throughout his time at Weapon X. While I’m not adverse to writing fanfiction, I feel like Joe Kelly has this one covered, but it did give me the idea of someone who might want to die but be unable to.

That of course lead me to vampires and other supernatural creatures, and I liked the idea of two immortal beings meeting up to discuss the less-than-ideal deal of being immortal.

Originally posted for the Story Kernels Patreon Oct 27, 2022.

What I wrote:

“Some people might say you have a death wish.”

The tired laugh is expected, a sign of a worn-weary existence.

“Some might, but they’d be way off.” Thomas bites his lip, blue eyes gazing out into the distance, the traffic forty stories below seemingly forgotten for the view of storm clouds rolling in. “I’m carrying a burden, and every time Death approaches, I hope those burdens will be relieved.”

The wind bandies the loose strands of Joanie’s hair, but she has no intention of releasing her grip on the ledge. She doesn’t see a cloaked figure lurking about, but Death can move quickly when needed.

“Every time?” she double checks. Death is normally a one-time thing, even for creations who can see beyond the veil like herself.

“‘The valiant never taste of death but once,'” Thomas quotes, and then sags. “A long time ago I was a coward and I made a deal.” Thomas finally meets Joanie’s steady gaze. “Have you ever heard of a sin-eater?”

Now it’s your turn:

Why is your character chasing death? Why is Death running from them? How did this relationship get so flipped?

 

 

If you enjoyed this prompt and would like another, the February prompt on Patreon inspired a story about an artificial intelligence discovering it actually did have preferences for its physical form.

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